this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 111 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Various ant species do a similar thing where their soldiers have really big, flat heads and when their nest gets attacked, the soldiers stick their head into the entrance way, so the attackers can't come inside.

Apparently, this kind of behaviour is referred to as phragmosis.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 4 months ago

They also drop a cool shield in Elden Ring.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago

Also Cork Lid Trapdoor Spiders

[–] [email protected] 62 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Thank you America for growing your population so large. When climate change gets so bad that the dykes pop, we can just grab the nearest American to plug the hole and save humanity.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

work for volcanic eruption too

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

We've been training with Taco Bell Diablo sauce for such an occasion.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Sean Evans gonna ask celebrities questions while the lava gets hotter and hotter

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

I knew I was good for something

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Hey, dykes are people too. I have it on good authority that many of them like biking.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 4 months ago

If I'm ever reincarnated as a mole rat, I know I have guaranteed employment.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 4 months ago (2 children)

This would be a very interesting paper to read! any citations?

[–] [email protected] 56 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Not OP, I couldn't find a paper. Just this site that makes the same claim almost word for word, and cites a youtube video of a lecture at Stanford. I didn't watch the video, but this seems best described as a "plausible" explanation rather than a proven fact.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Reincarnation goals: request to be fat naked mole rat at the pearly gates.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

If you get to the Pearly Gates as a fat mole rat, point out to St Peter that with climate change and rising ocean levels, Heaven may need your attributes soon.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

This says there are fat naked mole rats, but it says their role is to connect to other naked mole rats communities by digging when the ground is soft from rain. That's quite different from the claim that their role is to block the tunnels to stop them flooding.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Didn't find the passage that states anything about blocking passages from rain though...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Shit! That video is Robert Sapolsky's lecture. I have something like an "intellectual" crush on him. He has done pioneering works in behavioural science, and at the intersection of human physiology and psychology. One of his books "Why Zebra's Don't Get Ulcers" is entirely on the various effects of psychological stress on the human body.

He observed the same group of baboons for 25 years to understand their behaviour. Each year he used to spend 4 months with this group and observe them for more than 8 hours a day. "A Primate's Memoir" is another book on this. Recently he wrote "Behave", on the deterministic nature of human behaviour, tracing "aggression" back to the evolutionary reasons.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

more like layman meme than science meme :P

[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 months ago

I'll believe it when Ze Frank does a True Facts video on it.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The more I read about them, the more I'm fascinated with how alien they seem to be to me. It's either them or crabs as the ultimate form that everything would come to eventually. Maybe even molecrabs we are yet to discover.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Squid are pretty awesome too. More alien than crabs IMO as well.

Crabs are kinda like big tasty water-spiders.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think octopus are the most awesome animals on the planet, beating crows for the title.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I think we should give them knives and make them fight for it

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Do you have some links or recs to drop for me and others about squids? That'd be sweet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I mean, a 1-2-3 hour documentary or a paper would obviously exceed my look at them, even if they glance back.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Is this why grandma keeps calling me skinny and offers foods every time I visit her?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

She knows that if anyone wants to get to her, they have to go through you, and the bigger you are, the harder it is.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So that's what butt plugs are

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also both are probably covered in mud when you pull them out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

#lifegoals ✌️🖖

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago

apparently this is a myth. thats too bad

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

Naked mole rats are considered an example of a truly "eusocial" mammal analogue to ants. More evidence for the idea that social behavior/societal grouping, once established in a species, characterizes it more potently than just about anything else in its genetic history. Chimps might be our closest genetic relatives, but the way we live and think is probably much more similar to these guys.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

My spirit animal.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

I thought it was going to say in the rainy season they eat them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Thank your plug

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

They're turning into ants

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

🎵 I see you baby.. 🎵

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

🎵 I like big butts and I cannot lie 🎵

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

That Feeling When: You talk about butt plugs to a naked mole rat and it looks at you in total confusion.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

so this is why so many american are overweight and lot of politicians are climate change deniers...